Ramblin, gamblin man: Jimmie Johnson gets lucky in Vegas

By
AL PEARCE

Mar 12, 2006

LAT Photographic

Jimmie Johnson was man enough to ’fess up: He wouldn’t have won NASCAR’s Las Vegas round without the late caution that created NASCAR’s third straight overtime finish this year. The Hendrick/Chevrolet star led only the final 200 yards in beating Matt Kenseth by a half-length in a 404.5-miler that was thoroughly boring until the end.

Kenseth led a race-record 146 laps and was home free until Denny Hamlin and Kenny Wallace banged together with two laps remaining. That created the day’s fourth debris caution and brought second-running Johnson to Kenseth’s bumper for the final restart. Kenseth led the first overtime lap, but couldn’t handle Johnson’s outside pass approaching the checkered flag. Kyle Busch, Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five, but weren’t serious contenders to win.

Tony Stewart led 54 laps and was in the top five when a late flat tire left him a frustrated and somewhat angry (at Busch) 21st. Mark Martin led the second-most laps (57) en route to a solid sixth place. Other than pole-sitter Greg Biffle (six laps), none of the other seven leaders led more than one lap. And except for the early laps and a few laps following the seven restarts, this was mostly a single-file, uneventful parade.

The last few laps, though, made the rest of the ordeal bearable.

“My day went great until the last corner,” said a surprisingly upbeat Kenseth. “I knew I’d be in trouble on that restart because Jimmie had been faster when they threw the caution. I was doing everything I could when he started mowing me down. I hoped to hold him off, but didn’t have a real good feeling.” Kenseth originally thought his motor had soured; later, he said it was probably more in his head than under his hood. “It was weird,” he said. “I had that 1.3- or 1.4-second lead and was getting in the gas in the same place. The car felt the same through the corners, but he started running me down. I’m disappointed, but don’t feel like I could have done anything different. Short of wrecking, I did everything I could.”

It is Johnson’s second win this year and third straight top-two finish, all without suspended crew chief Chad Knaus. Interim chief Darian Grubb will be in place this weekend near Atlanta before Knaus returns March 26 at Bristol.

NASCAR suspended Knaus for four races because of a rules violation in Daytona 500 qualifying. Johnson and Grubb won the 500, backed it with a second in Fontana, then stole this one.

“If it had stayed green,” Johnson said, “I don’t think I would have caught Matt. Until then, he had it in the bag. The game plan was to stay top five and be smooth and clean, then really pour it on near the end. I didn’t overdrive the car the first three-quarters of the race. Then, I thought long and hard about what I’d do if I had the lead [on a two-lap overtime restart]. I got to his quarter-panel and got position, and Matt raced me clean.”

So there Johnson sits, atop the standings. The team’s crew chief, whom they consider their heart and soul, has been hors de combat most of that time. So why tempt fate and bring him back? Why not remove “interim” from Grubb’s title and leave Knaus back at the shop doing—well, whatever it is he has been doing the past month?

“Chad started this team and picked Darian to be the engineer,” Johnson said after his 20th career win, all at Hendrick Motorsports. “He’s brought him through the organization and showed us what we’re made of, and what our talents are. Chad’s a huge asset, so we’re looking forward to having him back. We wanted to get off to nice start this year, and this is more than that.”

Dodge driver Kasey Kahne led a top-10 sweep by Nextel Cup drivers in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Kahne led three times for 52 of 206 laps (the race went overtime), including the final 29, for his fourth career Busch win. Pole-winner Matt Kenseth finished second, ahead of Kevin Harvick. Eleventh-place Jason Leffler was the highest-finishing Busch regular. Full-schedule Cup drivers won all four Busch races this year and 25 of the last 36 races, dating to last March at LVMS.

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